{"id":2369,"date":"2011-07-14T14:24:35","date_gmt":"2011-07-14T18:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/?p=2369"},"modified":"2011-07-14T14:27:23","modified_gmt":"2011-07-14T18:27:23","slug":"catholic-theologian-calls-ny-times-attack-on-natural-contraception-peculiar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars\/2011\/07\/catholic-theologian-calls-ny-times-attack-on-natural-contraception-peculiar.html","title":{"rendered":"Catholic theologian calls NY Times “attack” on natural contraception “peculiar”"},"content":{"rendered":"

A prominent Catholic professor says a New York Times<\/em> attack\u00a0on natural contraception is “very peculiar” and “completely uninformative.”<\/p>\n

Professor Janet Smith holds the Father Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.\u00a0She is\u00a0a consultor to the Pontifical Council on the Family and an opponent of contraception. She told the pro-life website LifeSiteNews that the Times<\/em>\u2019 article \u201creports one couple\u2019s experience as though it were universal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Catholic church opposes any\u00a0strategy\u00a0to avoid pregnancy other than\u00a0natural methods\u00a0of monitoring the woman\u2019s cycle and fertility signs.<\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> story detailed the story of a couple who had been\u00a0Catholic\u00a0anti-contraception activists, but who have now divorced and attend liberal Protestant churches. Smith told LifeSiteNews that natural family planning has strengthened and even saved countless marriages, while the use of contraceptives has been linked to divorce.<\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> article, she said,\u00a0\u201cmade no attempt to get the testimony of those whose marriages have been saved and whose intimacy has been radically deepened by the use of natural family planning.\u00a0 They are legion. Clearly the\u00a0[formerly activist husband and wife]\u00a0do not attribute all their marital problems to the use of natural family planning, nor should any reader of the article conclude that it was the use of\u00a0natural family planning\u00a0that led to their divorce.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may well have been the recourse to contraceptives that led to the disintegration of the marriage,\u201d\u00a0the professor\u00a0added, citing research by Stanford demographer Robert Michael, that links the rise of contraceptive availability and divorce.\u00a0He “actually discovered that as the contraceptive pill became more and more available, that line was parallel to the divorce line. In about 1975-1976 when every woman who wanted access to the Pill had it, that\u2019s when the divorce rate leveled off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Couples using natural methods, she said, have vastly lower divorce rates than the general population.\u00a0 In general, couples report better communication, mutual respect, and intimacy.”<\/p>\n

\n

CLICK HERE to read LifeSiteNews article<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A prominent Catholic professor says a New York Times attack\u00a0on natural contraception is “very peculiar” and “completely uninformative.” Professor Janet Smith holds the Father Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.\u00a0She is\u00a0a consultor to the Pontifical Council on the Family and an opponent of contraception. 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